Katy Branch Library pilots coding club for girls this month

A fifth-grader works to code his Lego vehicle at school, which received a grant to purchase Legos to help students learn about coding.

A fifth-grader works to code his Lego vehicle at school, which received a grant to purchase Legos to help students learn about coding.

Photo: Blaine McCartney, MBO

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Students code their Legos vehicle at a school in Cheyenne, Wyo. A teacher received a grant to purchase the Legos to help students learn about coding.

Students code their Legos vehicle at a school in Cheyenne, Wyo. A teacher received a grant to purchase the Legos to help students learn about coding.

Photo: Blaine McCartney, MBO

Katy Branch Library pilots coding club for girls this month

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The Katy Branch Library is one of only four branches of the Harris County Public Library that will host Playbots Coding Clubs in January, and Harris County is the only library in Texas to receive the national grant.

Mandy Carrico, HCPL adult services librarian of programs, partnerships and outreach, applied for the grant, intended to reach out to those underrepresented in computer science careers such as girls, minorities and people with disabilities.

"The grant is providing funding for coding programs for underserved groups," said Angel Hill, branch manager of the Katy library. "The group that we decided to do it for is junior high girls. A lot of girls come in the library."

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Katy and the Lone Star College-Tomball Community Library are offering a girls edition of Playbots to promote their interest in science and technology. The Tomball library had filled its slots by Dec. 19. Openings still remained, however, at the Jacinto City Branch Library and North Channel Branch Library for Playbots clubs. The clubs will focus on coding basics and concepts, applied coding, film work and community connections, according to the HCPL.

North Channel and Jacinto City branches' customers and communities are high in the audiences for which we were looking, said Carrico. At the other two branches, "we're celebrating women in these careers," she said.

The eight-week course is open to girls ages 11-14 at the Katy Branch Library from Jan. 8-Feb. 19. The girls will create short videos about their communities starring Lego Mindstorms robots that they will build and code.

"For the Katy branch," Hill said, "No matter what sort of activity we have for the teens, we seem to get the junior high girls. The kids already are coming into the library." She noted that Katy Junior High School is down the road from the library, which is at 5414 Franz Road, which may be a contributing factor.

Hill added, "We're really glad they let us aim at the ones coming into the library."

The grant provides funding for three staff members of the Katy branch to go for training this month to lead the club, said Hill. Carrico said they will learn coding, filming and editing.

A party for family and friends to view the films created by the club members is set for 5 p.m. Feb. 28, Hill said.

Carrico's division helps to provide resources and find grants to assist branches with programming, Hill said. "They're great at getting outside resources that a local branch may not be aware of or recognize as something that we can do. They find outside groups and businesses to partner with to fund library programs."

Playbots is a coding club made possible by a grant from the American Library Association and Google.

In October, the HCPL reported it was the only library in Texas to receive the ALA/Google Libraries Ready to Code grant. Carrico said the HCPL grant is under $25,000. The ALA announced more than $500,000 in grants for 28 libraries in 21 states plus the District of Columbia to design and implement coding programs for young people. Grantees were selected from a pool of more than 400 public and school libraries and officials said it is the first time the association has dedicated funding for computer science programs in libraries.

"The Libraries Ready to Code grants are a landmark investment in America's young people and in our future," said ALA President Jim Neal in a news release. "As centers of innovation in every corner of the country, libraries are the place for youth – especially those underrepresented in tech jobs – to get the CS skills they need to succeed in the information age. These new resources will help cultivate problem-solving skills, in addition to coding, that are at the heart of libraries' mission to foster critical thinking."

Carrico said HCPL and the other grant recipients will build a toolkit for other libraries to use. The grant will allow libraries to learn what works and doesn't and to fine-tune the curriculum and turn around and share it and adapt it to other libraries, she said.

Developed by U.S. libraries, the toolkit will be released in conjunction with National Library Week in April 2018, according to a news release.

"We plan to continue after the pilot," said Carrico, "and to use the notes and roll it out to more branches." Part of the grant pays for equipment that can be used again and again, she said, and the county can apply for other grants and combine them with county funds.